Chenna Poda ( Indian Cheese Cake)

This month Srivalli announced Chenna Poda ( Indian Cheese cake ) for Indian Cooking Challenge. I could not participate in ICC for quite few months.. As soon as I saw this recipe for this month’s challenge, I wanted to try it immediately and I made this last week..
We have 2 process here to make this delicious sweet.
Cheese making and baking of chenna poda

I followed the recipe from Titilating tastebuds

For Cheese
Milk ( I used  reduced fat milk ) – 1 to 1.5 gallon
Lemon juice -  1 cup
Ice cubes – 2 cups
Cheese cloth or any soft cloth ( like pillow cover )
Preparation
Bring the milk to boil. In the meantime , Squeeze lemons to get juice for about 1 cup. Pour the lemon juice slowly into the boiling milk. You will see that milk cuddles and water gets separated. Now add the ice cubes and turn off the stove.
Adding ice cubes will stop the cuddling process.
Filter the cheese / water through cheese cloth and hang the cheese cloth for 15 – 20 mins so that all water drains out.
The cheese is now ready to be used for baking chenna poda. ( Note , you can use this cheese not only for this recipe but also for other yummy sweets
     
For Chenna Poda
Ingredients
1) Cheese – 1 to 1.5  lb
2) Sugar – 1.5 cup ( 1 cup for cheese cake and 1/2 cup for Caramel )
3) Sooji or Rava – 2 tbsp. ( Soak this in water )
4)Cashews – 2 tbsp
5) Raisins – 2 tbsp..
6) cardamom powder – 1 tsp
7) water – for caramel preparation – 1/2 cup
8) Ghee / oil – little for frying cashews/raisins
Preparation
Caramel preparation – Pour 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup sugar and boil it until the sugar syrup thickens and becomes light brown ( amber color ) .. Immediately pour it to the baking dish ( do not delay to pour or the syrup will be crystallized )
Preheat the oven to 350° F . Now mix the Cheese , soaked sooji and sugar in the bowl along with cardamom , fried cashews / raisins . Knead it well for 5 – 10 mins. Spread the mixture on top of caramel in the baking dish and ;level it.
Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and make some cuts on the top of foil. Bake it for 35 – 45 mins. After 45 mins , insert the toothpick or knife to see it comes out clean. Remove the baking dish and cool it.
If you prefer to have it cold , keep it in refrigerator or microwave for few secs and serve warm..

Quinoa Upma

Ingredients

 ^{Quinoa – 1 cup}

 ^{Water – 2 cups}

 ^{Onions – 1 medium}

 ^{Any vegetables ( Carrot , beans , peas , Green, Red , yellow  bell peppers ) – 3/4  cup}

 ^{Walnuts – handful}

 ^{Green chillies -  1- 2}

 ^{Oil – 1 tbsp for seasoning}

 ^{Mustard – 1tsp}

 ^{Urad dhal – 1tsp}

 ^{Chana dhal; – 1tsp}

 ^{Lemon juice –  2 – 3 tsp ( depends on how tangy you want )}

 ^{Salt – to taste}

Preparation

Take quinoa and water in a pressure cooker and cook for  3 whistles along with little salt.  In a pan , heat the oil and add mustard. Once it splutters , add urad and chana dhal.  Add green chiilies and onions. Saute the onions till translucent. Add walnuts and fry for few mins. Add the vegetables and  salt and allow it to cook ( Add little water ). Once the vegetables are cooked completely and add the quinoa. Mix it thoroughly for few mins. Remove it from heat and add the lemon juice and serve it.




Sending this to Healthy Morsels hosted by Ayeesha from Taste of pearl city   and Serve it series hosted by Krithi / Denny

Upma Kozukkattai

 

Ingredients

Rice – 1 1/2 cup ( Sona Masoori ) 

Toor Dhal – 1 1/2 tbsp..

Whole Pepper – 1 tbsp..

Jeera – 1 tbsp..

Salt – based on taste

Water – 2 1/2  to 3 cups

Seasoning

Mustard – 1 tsp..

Chana Dhal – 1tsp

Urad dhal – 1 tsp

Curry leaves - few

Asafoetida- a pinch

Red Chillies -  3 to 4 ( based on how spicy you want )

Oil –  1 –2 tbsp.

Method

1) Soak the Rice in water for 10 – 15 mins . Then drain the water completely and let the rice dry for sometime .

2) Grind the rice in the mixer until it become coarse ( like rava )

3) Add pepper , Jeera and Toor dhal and grind it once ( it should also be coarse and not too fine powder )

4) In the kadai , Add little oil and do the seasoning with the above ingredients mentioned.

5) Add  2 1/2 – 3 cups water along with the required , Asafoetida and let it boil.

6) Then Add the Rice , pepper , toor dhal , jeera mixture and mix it well. Allow it to cook for sometime.

7) Once it becomes thick like a dough , remove it from heat and let it cool sometime

8) Apply oil in the hand and make small balls.

9) Steam the Kozukkattai balls in the idly vessel for 10 –15 mins.

10) Serve with Chutney ( usually coconut , I made peanut chutney last time )

Black Eyed Bean-Capsicum Salad

I am not a big fan of salads but my DH loves salad very much. Our cousin got this salad from his friend’s house few weeks back and we all liked it. Hence prepared this salad last week.

Ingredients
Black Eyed Beans – 1 cup
Bell Peppers – I used Orange and red ( 3 to 4 ) – Long ones.
Onions – 1 big
Lemon -  1
Salt – as per taste
Chilli powder ( Paprika ) – as per taste
Coriander – for garnish
Preparation
Soak the Black eyed beans for 4 to 5 hrs or overnight . Boil the black eyed beans in water with little salt ( do not overcook or keep it in cooker ) and allow it to cool
Chop the onions , bell peppers into small pieces.
Mix the black eyed beans , bell peppers , onions along with salt , chilli powder and lemon juice.
Garnish with Coriander . Serve it immediately or keep it in refrigerator as serve cold.

Sending this Soups and Salads mela by Srivalli

Sweet Potato Bonda

 

It was raining in LA last Friday and I wanted to munch something crispy and hot. As soon I returned from work , I told my mom that we will make bonda and I found that we had only 1 or 2  potatoes. Then I thought why not we use sweet potatoes to make bonda. I remembered that some time back , I read the recipe for bonda which used less oil and it was made using pancake puff pan ( it was in Dhivya’s chef in you recipe collections– I browsed and found it later )

I made potato and sweet potato bonda separately with the below ingredients

Ingredients

1 large Sweet potato  and  2 medium sized potato

Besan flour –1 1/2 cup

Rice flour – 1/2 cup

Red chilli powder  - 2 tbsp.

Asafoetida – a pinch

Salt – based on taste

Preparation

Cut Sweet potatoes and potato , Cook them in water with little salt ( I did not use pressure cooker )

Allow it to cool for sometime and remove the skin. In the meantime , prepare the batter dip with besan flour , rice flour , red chilli powder , Asafoetida , salt and water. Now mash the sweet potatoes and potato in separate bowl. Add salt and make little balls. Dip in to the batter. Heat the kuzhipaniyaram pan , Add oil in all the holes of the pan, drop the balls. once it is cooked, turn it other side and cook it.

Repeat the same procedure for next batch. Serve hot with chutney or sauce ( We enjoyed it with Maggi hot and sweet sauce )

Note : You can add fried onions , green chillies , coriander , ginger paste and mix with sweet potato and potato mixture and then make balls ( I just did not add them and made it plain so that I can give it to my daughter )

Adai

Adai ( Lentil Crepe ) is a South Indian recipe and its one of the favorite  for everyone in my family. My Mom usually make this for evening Tiffin  or for early Dinner. The below recipe is from my mom.

Ingredients

1) Idly rice – 2 cups

2) Toor Dhal – 1 cup

3) Chana dhal - 1/3 cup

4) Red Chillies – 10 to 12 medium ones

5) Asafoetida – pinch

6) Curry leaves – 4 to 5 nicely chopped

7) Onions – 1 medum sized

8) Spring onions – 1/2 cup

9) Salt – as per taste

10) Oil

Preparation

Soak Rice and dhal ( chana dhal and toor ) in water  for 2 hrs. Grind the Red chillies , Rice, dhal to a coarse batter along with asafoetida and salt. Fermentation is not required for this batter. Fry Onions and Spring onions for few mins with liitle oil and add to the batter just before you make start making adai. Add curry leaves.

Heat the griddle and sprinkle oil. Pour the batter and spread it on Tawa. Make a hole in the center of the adai ( for extra crispy adai ). Add little oil on the sides and center. Close the tawa with a lid for sometime ( this is done for proper cooking and my mom usually does it ) . Once cooked , flip it and cook the other side.

This is usually served with vellam ( powdered jaggery ), Avial. Yesterday we add this with white pumpkin more kuzambhu :-)

 

Note : For variation , you can add Carrot , Cabbage – thinly sliced to the batter. Onions / spring onions is purely optional. Since Adai is heavier , Make sure it is well cooked on both sides.

Honey – Wheat Almond Bread

I prepared bread for the second time on Sunday. First time I made using All-purpose flour and this time I used wheat flour.
Not sure where I got the recipe for the bread previously. I used the same bread recipe as base and just played around with the ingredients. Instead of banana, I added honey to increase the sweetness. Here is the recipe below…

Ingredients
Whole Wheat flour – 4 Cups
Baking Powder – 4 tsp
Brown Sugar – 1 cup
Honey – 4 tsp
Orange Juice – 1/3 cup
Milk – 1 cup
Water – 1 cup
Almonds – I used silvered almonds cut into tiny pieces
Vegetable oil – 1/3 cup and little more to grease the loaf pan.
 

Preparation

Preheat the Oven to 350° F. Mix Wheat flour, Baking powder, Brown Sugar in a bowl.
Add Vegetable Oil, Milk, Orange Juice, Honey and water in another bowl and whisk well. Add this to the dry mixture and mix well. Add almonds and mix it once. Grease the loaf pan and pour the mix evenly and bake for 45 mins to 1 hr until the knife inserted comes out clean.
Allow it to cool and serve it


Sending this to Winter Carnival hosted by Radhika of Tickling palates..

Also sending to Padma's event ( Back to basics - Bread event and Bake Fest event happening at Vardhini's kitchen

I sent this recipe to Mid week Fiesta -hosted by Amy from foodssrilanka

Linked this to Breakfast Event # 17 hosted by Krithi